Home School Excursions and Incursions

Each home school excursion program runs for 2 hours. We generally run excursions for home schooled students in the morning or afternoon, depending on availability. A morning excursion session typically runs from 10.00 – 12.00pm 

The home school excursion program is offered to home schooled groups of students on Mondays to Fridays, depending on availability. We are usually only able to offer the home school excursion program during the WA school term time, as the Telethon Kids Discovery Centre is typically busy delivering school holiday workshops during the school holidays. However, if this doesn’t suit your group, please reach out to the Education & Outreach team to discuss your options.

Our educational programs for home schooling groups are suitable for primary students in Years 3-6, which is roughly children aged 7 to 13 years old. We have recommendations on specific year levels for each of the different science and health-based program, as well as links to the Australian Curriculum on our Excursion Program document. However, the benefit of having smaller groups on a home school excursion at Telethon Kids Institute is that we can cater for mixed-age groups. Please let us know if you are organising an excursion for a mixed-age home schooling group, so that we can recommend the most suitable program for the range of ages and abilities in your group.

We have exciting plans to launch new programs and topics in the future, so sign up to the Discovery Centre + Schools mailing list to be the first to know when our new programs for home school excursions are available!

We charge $7.00 + GST per child, or a flat rate or $140 plus GST if less than 20 children for home schooling students participate. There is a minimum number of 10 students required to proceed with booking a home school excursion and the maximum capacity we can accommodate is 64 students.

Once we receive your initial enquiry and arrange a suitable date and time, you will be asked to complete an
Excursion Booking Confirmation Form and a New Customer Request Form to secure your booking.
An invoice will be sent to your Group Coordinator two weeks after incursion date for the number of students that attend on the day.

Our excursions for home schooled students include:

• Time in the Discovery Centre, where students will learn about science, health, and research through interactive games,
• Hands-on science activities delivered by our very own Telethon Kids researchers, and
• A guided viewing of our world-class lab facilities.

If you would like to lengthen the time your group spends exploring the fun and interactive games inside the Discovery Centre, we recommend booking Exclusive Use of the Discovery Centre, which gives your group exclusive use of the centre for up to 1-hour with an additional $50.00 + GST booking fee. The centre will be closed to the public and open solely for your group with this exclusive use booking. Please let our team know if you are interested in this option.

Yes! Download the Excursion Program to view details of each topic and links to the Australian Curriculum. 

Whilst we welcome parents/carers of home-schooled students to participate in the excursion program at Telethon Kids Institute with their child, please let our team know if would like to be present at the excursion prior to it taking place, as we need to adhere to strict capacity requirements at Telethon Kids Institute and Perth Children’s Hospital. Due to our restricted capacity, we recommend a maximum of one parent/carer to attend the excursion per family.

We do, however, ask that parents/carers remain in the vicinity of Perth Children’s Hospital for the duration of the excursion so that they can be contacted in the event of an emergency. There are plenty of cafes in and around Perth Children’s Hospital where you can enjoy a hot drink while you wait, or you are also more than welcomed to wait on the comfy couch inside the Discovery Centre.

Unfortunately, younger siblings are not permitted to attend the home school excursion. If you have any other children with you, you are more than welcome to wait with them in the Discovery Centre while the excursion is taking place.  

We will certainly try our best to cater for students with special needs or allergies. Please advise the Education & Outreach team if your child has special needs prior to the home school excursion taking place. Telethon Kids Institute and Perth Children’s Hospital have lifts and all areas of the building are wheelchair accessible, including toilets and first aid rooms. Unfortunately, Telethon Kids Institute cannot guarantee a nut free environment. 

No food or drink is allowed to be consumed inside the Discovery Centre. However, if your child wishes to bring a drink bottle on the excursion, they may do so as long as it contains only water, and they take responsibility for making sure the drink bottle does not get lost as we move around the hospital building during the excursion.

If you would like to schedule in a recess or lunch break sometime during your visit, please speak to our team to discuss your options.

Once you have gathered enough interested families to meet the minimum number of students required for the excursion booking, please complete the online enquiry form and we’ll be in touch! A completed Booking Confirmation Form is then required prior to confirming the home school excursion booking. As the main contact for the home schooling group, you will be responsible for communicating all relevant information for the booking to the other families. Please ensure you have read and agreed to our Terms & Conditions document before booking a home school excursion at Telethon Kids Institute.

Unfortunately, we are unable to accept any bookings for home school excursions with less than the minimum requirement of 10 students. Should the home school excursion have to be cancelled due to insufficient enrolments, you will be contacted, and an alternative package will be arranged.

If you do decide not to go ahead with a booked home school excursion, please provide at least 30 days’ notice so we can offer another group the opportunity to visit.

Unless there are exceptional circumstances, if you do not provide the required notice the group will be charged a $50 cancellation fee. Groups that do not provide any notice of cancellation and fail to attend on the day will be charged the total excursion fees as specified on the Booking Confirmation Form.

Please view our Terms and Conditions for more information

If you or your group is delayed on the day of your visit, please contact us on 6319 1000. 

The Telethon Kids Discovery Centre is located next to the Telethon Kids concierge desk, which is near the Northern Entrance of Perth Children’s Hospital. Please enter via the Main Entrance to the hospital and make your way towards the far-left side of the hospital building. Parents/Carers will be required to sign in and sign out for their child inside the Discovery Centre at the start and end of the home school excursion.

Visitor parking is available in the basement or multi-storey carpark opposite the Northern Entrance to Perth Children’s Hospital. Perth Children’s Hospital is also accessible by public transport, with a bus stop conveniently located right outside the building. A map of the hospital campus as well as information to help you plan for your journey is available from the QEii website. Please allow an additional 15-30 minutes prior to the excursion start time to find parking as it can get very busy around the hospital complex at certain times of the day.

We have developed a range of online Science Activities for Kids to support your child’s home school learning programs and interest in science, health and research. From learning about poo, to exploring what’s in our cells and investigating the power of our lungs, there’s plenty of easy science activities suitable for home learning available on our website for you to download and complete at home, to help your curious learners understand a range of tricky scientific concepts.

Sign up to the Discovery Club or join us on our Facebook group to get regular access and information about our resources and activities for kids, including early bird access to our popular school holiday workshops!

Our home school incursion sessions are suitable for students in Years 1,2 3, 4, 5 or 6 just choose the workshop suitable for your year level.

If you’re interested in organising an incursion for high school students, please contact our Education & Outreach team.

The cost for a home school incursion is $5 plus GST per student per workshop. If your total number of students is below 25 a flat rate of $125 + GST applies. Our researchers and team can stay for a maximum of 2 hours class time.

Our researchers are generally able to visit schools within the Perth metro area as part of the home school incursion program. If your group is located outside the Perth metro area, please get in touch with our Education & Outreach team so we can discuss your options.

Once we have received your initial enquiry and arranged a suitable date and time, you will be asked to complete an incursion Booking Confirmation Form and a New Customer Request Form if applicable. An invoice will be sent to your group for a total of $5 per student plus GST that attends or a flat rate of $125 +GST if total number of students is below 25, two weeks after the incursion.

If you decide to cancel a booked home school incursion, please provide at least 30 days’ notice so we can offer another group the opportunity to book this incursion. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, if you do not provide the required notice the group will be charged a $50 cancellation fee. Groups that do not provide the required notice of cancellation and fail to attend the incursion on the day will be charged the full rate.

Due to the hands-on nature of the home school incursion program, there is a strict number of students that can be accommodated per session. Consumables and equipment will be provided for a maximum of 32 students per class. Our researchers can stay for up to 2 hours and visit 2 classes in that time (1 hour max per class). 

Yes, all Telethon Kids Institute staff who will be visiting your group as part of the home school incursion program, have a current WWC check and Police Clearance that can be presented upon request. 

Yes. While the Telethon Kids researcher and staff member will run the incursion with your students, duty of care remains the responsibility of home school group. Group supervisors must always remain present in the room as the home school incursion is taking place.

In the lead up to the booked home school incursion, we will send through information about the hands-on workshop the researcher and team will conduct with your students at least one week prior to the incursion date. Please inform us of the type of presenting space(s) we will have access to during the session so that we can plan suitable activities for the space.

Please note that our home school incursion sessions also require a projector, interactive whiteboard, screen or similar, with audio, to enable the researcher to do their presentation.

Please let our Outreach & Education team know if any students have special needs or allergies, prior to the home school incursion taking place. It is the responsibility of group supervisors to advise Telethon Kids any information relevant to the visit. Our home school incursion Terms and Conditions document contains the most up-to-date information to help you plan and prepare for the session.

We also have a range of Science Activities for Kids for pre and post learning prior to and after the home school incursion has taken place. The Meet Superhero Researchers section has a variety of child-friendly and fun activities to engage your students in the life-saving work that our researchers do at Telethon Kids Institute. We have also created hands-on lesson plans designed for the classroom on topics of health and science in our Science Lesson Plans section.

Yes, and we highly recommend that you do! The Discovery Centre is FREE entry and open to the public every Monday to Friday, 9-3pm, throughout the school term and school holidays. We are closed on public holidays and between Christmas and New Years’ Day.

We also host Science & Sip Educators’ Evenings throughout the year where you are welcomed to try out a program and meet our researchers and Outreach & Education team before planning a visit with your class. Make sure to sign up to the Discovery Centre + Schools mailing list to be first to know when the free tickets to the next Science & Sip event are released.